A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a dedicated graphics rendering device utilized to process and display computerized graphics on a display device. GPUs are built with a highly-parallel structure that provides more efficient processing than typical, general-purpose central processing units (CPUs) for a range of complex algorithms. For example, the complex algorithms may correspond to representations of two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) computerized graphics.
GPUs may be included within graphics devices such as mobile wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), video gaming devices, video gaming consoles, video conferencing units, laptop computers, desktop computers, tablet computers, television set-top boxes, integrated television graphics devices, digital recording devices, digital media players, global positioning system (GPS) devices, digital cameras, automotive displays, and the like. Graphics applications executed on the graphics devices may describe or define contents of a graphics scene by invoking application programming interface (API) calls, or instructions, which in turn use the GPU to render an image for display.
Rendering engines of GPUs may operate according to either an immediate rendering mode or a deferred rendering mode. When operating according to the immediate rendering mode, a rendering engine of a GPU renders graphics data directly to a frame buffer. When operating according to the deferred rendering mode, a rendering engine of a GPU performs a tiling pass to divide graphics data into a plurality of tiles, renders each of the plurality of tiles to a local tile buffer, and reads each for the rendered tiles from the tile buffer to a frame buffer. At present, the immediate rendering mode is most commonly used in graphics devices where power and system bandwidth are less of a concern, and the deferred rendering mode is most commonly used in mobile devices where power and system bandwidth are at a premium.